General health and wellness topics, the following items should get sorted into sub-categories at some time.

2010-Nov-27: The Paleolithic Diet (here on Wikipedia), has you eating like a caveman, or perhaps an even earlier ancestor. Their idea is that at only recently (say in the past 10000 years) man added grains, beans, potatoes and dairy to his diet and that his digestive system still cannot handle these properly. [2244]

2010-Oct-21: One Hundred Pushups a site dedicated to getting the average person from a few to over a hundred pushups in a 6-week program. They have a sister site called Two Hundred Situps, combined these form a pretty good pair for getting back into shape for cross country skiing. [7065]

2010-Sep-26: Some success is now being had with growing new roots for teeth from stem cells (which can be obtained from baby teeth or wisdom teeth). Wisdom teeth might also be used as a general source for stem cells. [7432]

2010-Sep-26: Progress in Alzheimer's research is being made due to large-scale sharing of data between researchers. [9393][1]

2010-Jul-06: The Toxoplasma
Gondii parasite (which can be spread to humans from cats, and cats
get it by eating mice) is known to be of some risk to pregnant women,
but it might also be a much larger issue than previously thought as it appears
to change behavior of infected individuals (including making them more
risk tolerant). More on this as a neuro-scientist has observed a correlation between success in the World Cup and incidence of infection.
[950]

2010-May-17: The safety of X-ray back-scatter machines used in airport passenger screening is now being called into question. Still the safety factor on these (compared to other X-ray exposures) appears rather large, so even if current estimates are too low by a factor of a hundred these would still be pretty safe. [9116]

2010-Apr-22: Slashdot discusses the cost of digital hearing aids, perhaps this is a good example of the distortion of the market by health insurance companies? When you think about it these devices must have a huge yearly volume and over the last decade advances in DSP chips (driven by things like the MP3 player market) must have helped reduce their costs and power consumption while at the same time increasing their capabilities, so why have prices remained so high? [9090]

2010-Mar-09: Apparently HIV can hide in a victim's bone marrow waiting to re-emerge once the patient stops taking his drugs. One more interesting twist for the virus, one that's sure to make the drug companies dance for joy. [9004]

2010-Feb-09: A study of 60,000 people in Singapore over 14 years looked to see what health risks might be associated with soft drinks. They found an 87% increase in the rate of pancreatic cancer among those who drank soft drinks. This is thought to be caused by sugar. [8961]

2010-Jan-08: Wooden legs may be a thing of the future soon, wood has been reduced to pure carbon and then used as a matrix to receive a calcium deposit and then implanted to replace bone in sheep. Some more work on this idea, using rattan as the supporting matrix. [8392]

2010-Jan-08: And now cell phone radiation could be used to protect the brain from Alzheimers. This experiment found that cell phone radiation erased a build up of beta amyloid protein. Perhaps the microwaves were able to break this protein down? [8888]

2009-Dec-28: Scientists have been able to get follistatin (a myostatin blocker) to promote muscle growth in macaque monkeys, the next step is to run some human trials. How long will it be before this is put to use by athletes and then banned? [8882]

2009-Dec-25: A stem cell treatment where healthy cells from one eye were grafted into the other eye has been used to treat limbal stem cell deficiency. [8869]

2009-Dec-16: Some skin and lung cancers have been genetically mapped. These appear to have 20-30 thousand errors which are caused by prolonged exposure to sunlight or smoke. [8848]

2009-Dec-13: The US military's DARPA is working on zombie pigs, next step is to apply it to soldiers to help save them after severe trauma and blood loss. Discussed here on Slashdot. Of course this will probably be first tested on astronauts. [8838]

2009-Oct-31: Some studies are questioning the safety of terahertz scanner systems, it appears that these can have some sort of effect on DNA where previously they were thought not to affect chemical bonds. [8685][1]

2009-Oct-09: Slashdot discusses various exercise monitoring devices and how accessible their data is for additional processing. [8604][1]

2009-Oct-02: A dissolvable glass alloy could be used to make surgical implants for bone repair that would stabilize the bone and then the body would later disolve, eliminating the need for later surgery. [8590]

2009-Sep-23: A human trial of neural stem cell therapy has been approved, this will take place on only 12 ALS patients. [8556]

2009-Sep-21: And now taking showers could be harmful, shower heads have been found to harbor Mycobacterium avium. [8538]

2009-Sep-21: Paraplegic rats have been trained to walk again, there appears to be a local control system in the lower spine that will move the legs, even with a damage spine. However the brain cannot control this, so its not a "cure". I wonder how much of our daily repetitive tasks are also handled in a similar manner: locally controlled with only minor supervision by the brain? Perhaps walking, running, climbing stairs or even things like touch typing? [8536]

2009-Sep-09: Liposuction may be a good source for stem cells and may have an advantage over other sources in reduced processing time to make them useful. [8495]

2009-Sep-08: The US military is looking into an injectable brain gel, the idea being to help protect and then stimulate healing in the brain after trauma. Might also be useful for university students around exam times. [8486]

2009-Aug-07: Peer review does not guarantee quality research, it appears that Merek went as far as creating a phony journal to "publish" findings in support of some drugs. It appears that Elsevier, the publisher of this fake journal, are also publishing a number of other fake journals. So much for peer review in refereed journals. The New York Times reported on a similar issue where ghostwriters were employed to publish papers in a number of journals to develop "consensus support" for hormone replacement therapy, discussed here on Slashdot. [7934][1]

2009-Aug-07: An artificial liver is now being tested, this sounds like it is the first real step on a long road to a real artificial liver. [7539]

2009-Jul-31: The BBG (Brilliant Blue G dye) that is used in candy has been found to help minimize secondary damage in spinal injuries. [8355]

2009-Jul-28: A vaccine is now in clinical trials that triggers the immune system to attack cells with a high level of a faulty version of the mucous protein MUC1 which is often present in colorectal cancers. [8340]

2009-Jul-21: A new procedure that uses sound waves to cook brain tissue is being tested. This could allow for non-invasive treatment of deep-seated tissues in the brain without tricky (or impossible) invasive techniques. It might even be useful for replacing the use of radiation. [8307]

2009-Jul-08: A tiny robot has been designed to crawl through the veins of patients, the real innovation in this is that it is moved through the body by an externally applied magnetic field allowing the robot to work without an on-board power source. [8234]

2009-Jul-03: A similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression has been found. [8221]

2009-Jun-25: Laser activated brain cells have been created by splicing genes from light-sensitive algae into human brain cells. While this is being used to study brain function I can't help but think this would be useful for interfacing sensory implants. [8193]

2009-Jun-22: An interesting experimental cancer therapy applied with success to inoperable prostate cancer. This involves using some hormone therapy to activate and guide T-cells. [8175]

2009-Jun-03: More advances in the growing of stem cells, this time a safer way of creating pluripotent stem cells from human stem cells. [8066]

2009-May-25: Excessive (in the several litres a day range) Cola consumption can lead to a number of problems, including muscle weakness. [8037]

2009-May-25: BPA has been found to leach out of polycarbonate plastic water bottles. [8027]

2009-May-20: DARPA has released a report (discussed here on Slashdot) that describes some of their strategic research programs, there's some neat stuff including a number of projects related to vaccines and first aid. [8003][1]

2009-May-19: A gene transfer treatment has proved successful in getting monkeys to fight SIV (the simian equivalent to HIV). [7989]

2009-May-13: Someone has patented bits of two genes that are associated with higher risks of breast and ovarian cancers. This patent is now being fought. [7967][1]

2009-May-06: So now some of the restrictions on stem cell research have been lifted in the US the FDA is thinking of stepping in and slowing things down with its special approval touch. [7945]

2009-May-05: The flu virus appears to paralyze the immune system, this can let other infections run wild at the same time. [7942]

2009-May-01: The Chinese are getting into stem cell research and are aggressively pursuing some treatments. [7926]

2009-Apr-04: The Obama administration may cause a shake up in the health industry with their plan to identify medical treatments that don't work. [7831]

2009-Mar-29: HIV has been found to transfer directly from an infected cell to another uninfected cell when the cells make contact. Is this unique to HIV or do other viruses work this way as well. [7807]

2009-Feb-16: GlaxoSmithKline may be having a turn of heart about providing more appropriately priced drugs for the world's poor - or they are just worried that if they do not do something soon third world governments will just act unilaterally and cut them off. [7599]

2009-Jan-03: A test for genetic predisposition to prostate cancer, which checks for 5 genes that can elevate the risk up to 9 times, is being developed. [7407]

2008-Dec-25: Tunable eyeglasses have been invented, essentially a sandwich of two plastic lenses with a variable amount of clear silicon liquid between them. They probably cannot do anything for astigmatism, and the frames need some work, but in a few years who knows? One application for these might be in diving masks and swimming goggles (or even in skiing goggles) where the currently bulky frames would not matter much and perfect vision adjustment is not too important. [7388]

2008-Dec-21: Gene therapy has been used to cure a baby of the gene for breast cancer (BRCA1). [7380]

2008-Dec-21: Hacking a cell phone into a blood cell analyzer to quickly test blood samples in the field for disease such as malaria and HIV. [7379][1]

2008-Dec-19: A Slashdot review of Trick or Treatment which calls into question the alternative health industry (acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic and herbal medicine). [7373]

2008-Dec-16: An injectable artificial bone has been developed. This cures at body temperature so it will not damage surrounding cells and could be used to simultaneously deliver stem cells.
[7351]

2008-Dec-03: Work on putting animals (and people) into suspended animation by Marc Roth is still proceeding. Hydrogen Sulfide is is the current front runner (even carbon monoxide has been tried). [7287]

2008-Nov-29: A set of genes that affect aging in yeast have also been found to affect aging in mice. By feeding the mice with resveratrol which is an activator for these genes they extended the lifespan of the mice by 24 to 46%. [7281]

2008-Nov-20: A windpipe (lower trachea and bronchial tube) replacement has been successfully grown from the patients own stem cells. [7237]

2008-Nov-09: An < ahref="http://science.slashdot.org/science/08/11/09/1558241.shtml">HIV patient has been cured (AIDS-free for 2 years) by receiving a bone marrow transplant from a person with natural HIV immunity. [7176]

2008-Nov-07: Stretching before exercising can actually impair your performance. The correct thing now seems to be to do some short (5-10 minutes) aerobic (but low-intensity) activity followed by some "dynamic stretching" activity (crab walks, spiderman on the pavement, or re-enacting the Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks skit). I suspect a few minutes of Tai Chi would probably count as dynamic stretching too. [7168]

2008-Oct-24: The US DARPA is developing a special bleed control cuff that uses ultrasonics to determine the location of the bleed and then applies more sound waves to speed coagulation. While the military applications are obvious this sort of thing might be very useful to EMS crews attending to traffic accidents. [7085]

2008-Oct-21: Drinking french-press or espresso-style coffee may elevate your blood cholesterol because of the action of cafestol. Drinking paper-filtered coffee does not do this because the paper traps the cafestol. [7062]

2008-Oct-19: If black and white television can change the colour of people's dreams what will HiDef do? And does the modern kid have commercial breaks in his dreams now? [7050]

2008-Oct-13: ExRx.net has a good collection of articles on training. They also have a number of online calculators, like one to do a Rockport Walk test which is based on measuring your heart rate and time walking a mile. [7017]

2008-Aug-31: Sometimes politics, health and market place special interests don't mix well. When Alberta had its mad cow scare (starting in May 2003)the government and majority players in the industry only wanted to tighten procedures somewhat and make sure the appropriate standards were being complied to. A minority voice in the industry argued that 100% of cows should be tested for BSE, regardless of the international or US criteria, and that doing so would help rebuild trust in the product. As the cost of doing this probably was less than $100 per animal it would not have raised prices of the beef greatly. This idea was ignored and it took something like 4 years to get Alberta beef fully shipping back into the US and during this time the industry suffered greatly. Now one American company is wanting to test 100% of their beef that is targeted at some particular markets (such as Japan) and their competitors are using the USDA to stop them from doing this - for fear that other consumers will start to demand the same standards. Beats me why they are worried, all they would have to do is to pass on the increased costs of testing to the consumers who would be willing to pay for the better meat (probably less than $0.50/pound, if the tests were $100/animal and you get 200 pounds of meat from one animal). Of course the conspiracy theory for this is that the producers know they have a problem with BSE and by inspecting 100% of the animals this will soon become obvious... [6769]

2008-Aug-29: Using a virus to reprogram adult cells has been demonstrated in mice. The immediate application seems to be restarting production of insulin by the pancreas, but other applications will surely follow if this works in humans. [6764]

2008-Aug-22: Certain forms of skin cancer could emit scents that could be detected by some form of sniffer. [6728]

2008-Aug-21: FLARE is a fluorescent marking dye that can be tagged so that it is ingested by cancer cells, this causes the cancerous cells to glow allowing surgeons to see exactly what they need to remove. [6713]

2008-Jul-13: The USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (the name is longer than the URL!) is a good source of nutritional information on foods, it contains much more detailed information than the standard product packaging labels and they have a nutrient list search so you can find foods that are good sources of particular nutrients. [6513]

2008-Jul-03: T-Cells have been modified in the lab to make them HIV resistant by introducing an error to the CCR5 gene. Sounds a bit like what sickle-cell anemia does with the red blood cells to fight malaria. [6478]

2008-Jul-01: After a successful trial in mice a new cancer treatment based on donating granulocytes (a type of white blood cell) is going to enter human trials. [6460]

2008-Jun-27: Rapamycin which is used to help prevent organ rejection has also been found to reverse some learning disorders and mild retardation in mice. [6450]

2008-Jun-27: Aging 2008 a conference to explore regenerative (anti-aging) medicine will be in Los Angeles. [6447]

2008-Jun-24: Vitamin D's role in longevity is being raised, a potential issue for those living in the northern latitudes. [6416]

2008-Jun-17: California is trying to restrict user-demanded DNA testing, the real reason might be to prevent people from submitting DNA that is not their own (say an employee or a date's) to see what genetic skeletons lurk. [6365]

2008-May-26: Fasting may fix jet lag. Perhaps something to try on your next flight, it sounds like a 16 hour fast is about what is needed to trigger the change (in mice), and since food is no longer served on airplanes and you have to get to the airport many hours early you probably only have to start the fast a few hours before leaving your house. Then once you get to your destination have dinner and go to bed. [6230]

2008-May-23: Slashdot discusses Google Health privacy concerns. There are also a number of links here that discuss past security issues Google has had. [6214][1]

2008-May-20: Not to be left in the waiting room, Google has also declared that it will offer online personal health records like Microsoft. In late Feb'08 Google started testing this system. On 19-May-2008 Google's Health Beta program was opened to the public. [3461][1]

2008-May-19: Using magnetic pulses to turn off the brain's speech center - or at least temporarily disrupt it. [6184]

2008-May-12: Another product based on nano-tech aimed at rapid blood clotting. Now all they need to do is package it in an aerosol spray for rapid application. [6134]

2008-May-01: pixie dust derived from the lining of a pig's bladder helped to regrow a finger tip. This may be a hoax, or strange luck but it's certainly the direction most people want this stuff to go. A talk about why we can't grow new body parts. [6019]

2008-Apr-26: Experiments are being made (discussed here on Slashdot) with adding good old kaolin clay (think kaopectate) to bandage gauze to greatly increase the speed of blood clotting. [5978]

2008-Apr-08: Alligator blood my be a source of new antibiotics, it seems that several hundred million years of evolution have given the gators the ability to defend against microorganisms that they have not been previously exposed to. Of course this could just be a case of them having DNA that already contains a large arsenal of previously tried and true solutions, or it could be they recognize their own cells and attack everything else by default. [5740]

2008-Mar-24: A study of scientists in the Czech Republic found that scientific work output (papers) was inversely proportional to beer input (drinking). This has been analyzed by another scientist and found to be severely flawed. [5305][1]

2008-Mar-03: A virus that attacks an aggressive form of human brain cancer in mice has been found. The possibility of using viruses to attack specific cancer cells is very appealing, especially (as is the case with brain tumors) when it is next to impossible to operate and difficult to treat with radiation without causing significant collateral damage. [5215]

2007-Nov-15: The PCSport Power Stepper is a small, USB-attached stepper that can be placed under your desk to get some exercise while working. Slashdot discusses it here. Given that it is going to be rather limited in range of motion, and that your knees will be quite bent while using this in a typical sitting position (unless you are on the edge of a rather high seat) I doubt this will burn many calories per hour and I'd be a bit worried it might lead to some odd new joint injury (due to the odd position for the knees). Still it might help keep the circulation going. [4156]

2007-Nov-11: MRI machines may soon get a lot smaller, less expensive to produce, transport and operate. Which would bea good thing as so far these have proved to be very useful with little in terms of risk (unless you've got a metal plate, or have a habit of swallowing metal objects or have tattoos). [4063]

2007-Oct-31: Capsaicin is being tested on surgical wounds to act as a long-term pain killer, this is applied to the wound while the patient is under a local anesthetic (so the screams don't wake the dead) and then after the initial burning sensation has worn off the nerves will remain numb for a long time (perhaps up to a month) allowing the patient to recover without having to enjoy a cocktail of conventional (and possibly addictive) pain killers. How long before this enters the labor department? [3904]

2007-Oct-24: A study now shows that a recent reduction in violent crime in the USA is well correlated with the phasing out of leaded gasoline that started in 1973. The question is, will this be repeated for the UK and Australia who did not switch to unleaded until the 1980s? Is leaded gas still used else where, Africa perhaps? [3507]

2007-Oct-18: Stem cells have been used to grow replacement nerves in animals, a team from the University of Manchester is now going to expand its work on this to humans. [3462]

2007-Oct-16: Now there seems to be doubt about computer use causing carpal tunnel syndrome. The real cause will probably prove to be excessive strain caused by lifting large lattes. [3447]

2007-Oct-04: Bill Gates must be getting worried about his health, now Microsoft is wanting to make a user-controlled health care historical database. While such a system could be of great benefit to patients (the users) by centralizing all their records and ensuring whole sections don't get lost when a doctor's office moves or closes, and it could also be of great benefit for researchers who could get anonymized access to query the system, there is still the risk that such a system could be very tempting to Big Brother and so it's privacy should also be shielded by strong acts of law. [2535][1]

2007-Oct-04: Hot chili peppers get another application, the capsaicin they contain may help allow pain killers to enter the nerves more effectively. [2534]

2007-Aug-30: Genetically engineered cells have been implanted in mice that have been previously sickened with Alzheimer's disease related plaque, these engineered cells have reversed the plaque build up. [993]

2007-Aug-30:
WebMD.com has some little health
calculator tools including an exercise calorie counter, target
heart
rate and BMI calculator (which claims I could loose over 60 pounds
before
being considered "underweight", if I did that I could disappear from
view
by turning sideways!)
[836]

2007-Aug-30:
Hibernation
in mice, triggered by hydrogen sulphide, has been demonstrated,
perhaps this could also be used to induce a hybernative state in humans
(could be very popular for dull lectures)
[850]

2007-Aug-30:
Coffee may
help protect drinkers against cirrhosis, of course if you're
drinking 4 or more cups of coffee a day what's probably happening is
you go to the bathroom so often that a lot of the alcohol you consume
gets eliminated by the kidneys before the liver gets to work on it.
[864]

2007-Aug-30:
It looks like at least some
direct exposure to the sun might be a good thing after all - turns
out that the vitamin D produced by this might be very effective in
reducing cancer. There's also a bunch of controversy surrounding this,
as some of the related results may be that blacks have higher cancer
rates than whites due to reduced vitamin D production and also since
vitamin D gets trapped in fat, the obese end up with more cancer.
[866]

2007-Aug-30:
Using induced
hypothermia to save
trauma patients may be just around the corner. The idea is to
rapidly drain the blood, replace it with a chilled saline solution and
then operate for up to 2 hours, then pump the saved blood back in.
Works with pigs 90% of the time, wonder what it does for human
memories? Could this be extended further by taking the temperatures
lower? Perhaps even to the point of long term suspended animation?
[868]

2007-Aug-30:
Do it your self ultrasound?
Possibly the start of a new trend, by splitting medical diagnostic
equipment into a sensor and software, and then connecting the sensor to
a standard computer through a safe wireless interface (especially one
based on a recognized standard like BlueTooth or WiFi) the cost of
diagnostic equipment could be greatly reduced. So what's next?
Home ECG/EKG? What about automated chemical analysis? Or maybe a
small MRI solution - actually one that was small enough to just take a
knee joint would be a good seller to doctors and sports medicine
clinics.
[913]

2007-Aug-30:
Zap
headaches with an electromagnetic pulse (probably also works well
to erase mag-stripes on credit cards)
[915]

2007-Aug-30:
A Smart
Pill that records data as it travels through the body
[916]

2007-Aug-30:
Canadian
Scientists Regrow Teeth, and bones
too apparently. Works by applying low-intensity, pulsed ultra sound
to the tooth root - so perhaps would not work when the root is damaged.
The FDA has approved the Exogen
4000+ from Smith & Nephew for use at home to stimulate bone
healing.
[917]

2007-Aug-30:
Bacteria-killing
viruses may be added to foods as a preservative. These appear to be
the phages (bacteriophages) that the Russians were working with in the
70's and 80's as alternatives to antibiotics.
[927]

2007-Aug-30:
Aug'06, the first phase of an AIDS vaccine trial has been reported
as successful
[928]

2007-Aug-30:
There
is worry that a promising new cancer drug, dichloroacetate (DCA),
will not be approved for use because drug companies will not want to
fund the safety and effectiveness studies as the drug cannot be
patented (heck a chemistry student could probably make it in his
kitchen). However, what about non-commercial academic research?
Perhaps its time that University Research Groups stepped forward to do
the work (after all there would be the chance to write a few PhD theses
and dozens of research papers on this), and then the world could have a
much less costly solution? The University of Alberta has a
group looking at this.
[954]

2007-Aug-30:
According to this
article (Calgary SUN 11-Feb-2007), bird flu may not greatly affect
the elderly (or those born before 1969). It appears that nearly 90% of
the people who have been diagnosed with H5N1 so far have been under 40
years old. This is to be reported in a letter to the "Journal of
Emerging Infectious Diseases" by Matthew Smallman-Raynor and Andrew
Cliff.
[957]

2007-Aug-30:
A genetically
modified mosquito that will not transmit malaria might be a good
thing, but I can't help feeling uncomfortable about the fact that is
lays more eggs and has a higher survival rate than the strain it
replaces. I bet it eats more too... ouch!
[962]

2007-Aug-30:
Human
blood may contain a cure for AIDS, a irus-inhibitory peptide
(VIRIP) molecule occurs naturally in blood and some test changes to
this have proved much more effective at blocking HIV's entry point to
host cells.
[965]

2007-Aug-30:
Returning
to life could prove fatal. It may be that oxygen deprivation does
not damage patients as much as the resumption of oxygen does. Discussed
here
on Slashdot. This sort of effect could explain some of the rare cases
where drowning victims (particularly in cold water) have been
resuscitated after long periods of time.
[968]

2007-Aug-30:
More on reviving
the dead and the strange role that mitochondria might play in
cellular death
[969]

2007-Aug-30:
Useful drugs
based on nicotine are being developed, including some that may help
depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, ADHD and anxiety. Sounds like a
recent (July'07) Dr. Who episode where one could buy skin patches that
deliver "happy" or "forget".
[981]

2007-Aug-30:
Maslinic
acid, a type of wax found in olive oil skin can produce an 80%
slowing of the spread of AIDS in the body.
[982]